Recipe for Cooking Rice with Fewer Calories

Recipe for Cooking Rice with Fewer Calories 

Rice is an incredibly healthy grain. It’s high in fiber, vitamins, and minerals—especially manganese, niacin, selenium, thiamin, phosphorus, magnesium, and vitamin B6—and it’s also low in fat and calories. Unfortunately, most traditional rice recipes call for adding butter or oil to the pan before cooking the rice; by skipping this step and following these tips instead, you can reduce your rice’s fat content by almost 20% and save an estimated 600 calories per 1 cup of cooked rice! 

Ingredients

Cooking rice with fewer calories doesn’t have to be difficult. The trick is to stick with simple recipes that only contain a few ingredients—with minimal fat and sodium. Rice is naturally high in carbohydrates and not exactly low in calories, so pairing it with heart-healthy fats like those found in almonds can help lower your overall intake. This recipe combines brown rice, wild rice, and organic evaporated cane juice (ECJ) with almonds, fresh leeks, and cheese along with some flavorful herbs, resulting in a grain dish that’s not only low-calorie but also gluten-free. Each serving has just 365 calories; a simple side salad could easily bump up that number to 500 or more by adding croutons or bacon bits.

How To Cook

Choose High-Quality, Fiber-Rich Rice: If you want to eat a lot of rice—and if you’re trying to lose weight, chances are you do—chances are your calorie count will be much lower if you opt for brown rice instead of white. This recipe calls for 1 cup of uncooked white rice; it also mentions that 1 cup of brown rice has about 150 fewer calories than its white counterpart. Cooking with whole grains like brown rice and quinoa is not only better for your waistline, but it can also help improve cholesterol levels (2). 

Nutritional Information

Rice, like all grains, is high in carbohydrates and has a low Glycemic Index. Its glycemic load is also low. While rice isn’t necessarily a bad food (many studies have shown that whole grains are better than refined carbohydrates), it’s not exactly what dieters should be loading up on. Here’s how to cook rice with fewer calories: first, choose brown rice over white; if you need it to cook faster, try sushi rice or another similar grain that cooks faster; and make sure you don’t add any butter or oil to your preparation—this can easily kick out about 100 calories per serving.